The Spider's Duet
by Tearoom Saloon
Summary: Love, they said, was a tall, stiff drink. Dipper Gleeful wasn't sure he wanted a glass of love, but he needed something to wash its taste from his mouth. His sister thought so too, so she poured him a glass of rubbing alcohol and slid it across the table, content to wait for the infatuation to wear off. The problem, however, was that he didn't intend to give this one up.
1. Cast

**CAST OF CHARACTERS**

 _'Will you walk into my parlor?' said the Spider to the Fly._

 **Dipper Gleeful, the Spider:** Our protagonist. A quiet, cunning boy whose motives are as hazy as his eyes. Eighteen years of age, he's grown from a curious, mischievous child into a handsome, cutthroat young man. To cross him would be a foolish act, as few have managed to fight back. Mabel occasionally uses him to woo girls and gather information. He does this in a sterile, surgical manner, none of them holding his attention for more than a few hours.

 **Mabel Gleeful, the Fox:** Twin of Dipper. Though she is more sadistic, she is not the crueler of the pair. A loud, manipulative girl capable of winning mind games against the strongest of opponents. She is not good, nor is she nice, though she easily feigns emotions to get her way. It is unclear if she has genuine feelings of caring for anyone aside from her granduncle and brother. The undeniable leader of the Gleeful siblings, she takes full advantage of Dipper, knowing he won't reject her puppy stare.

 **Pacifica Northwest, the Fly:** An unwitting pawn in Mabel's game, whose involvement is less unwilling than Dipper's. Childhood friend of Gideon. A bit goofy, she comes from a large, wealthy family in the north-most part of California. She is the only child of her parents and one of many cousins. Her family is loving and kind, and they accept how she behaves, though none pretend to understand. She believes the best in people, and is crushed when their darker sides show. Pacifica likes to think she can bring out the best in those who hide themselves, and it will be her downfall.

 **Gideon Pines, the Frog:** The boy with the journal. Son of Bud and Martha Pines, owners of the Mystery Shack. Obsessed with anomalies, he has spent most of his summers chasing down supernatural events in Gravity Falls. He was chubby as a child, but after years of Mabel's constant bullying, he took to powerlifting, his broad frame a perfect fit for his new strength. She continues to tease but now compares him to a bear. He is protective of Pacifica, both because of his own feelings and his previous experiences with the Gleeful twins. Gideon is kind, but unlike Pacifica, is willing to lash out at unfair and unjust actions.


	2. Throwback Night

**TITLE** : The Spider's Duet  
 **SETTING:** Reverse Gravity Falls, Summer of the Eighteenth Year  
 **GENRES:** Drama, Romance, Horror, Supernatural  
 **MATURITY:** T at current, may rise to M  
 **ROMANTIC INTERESTES:** Currently implied Dipper for Pacifica

* * *

In seconds, the crystal palace shatters.

It takes few words and fewer precious seconds before the glass rains down and the steel beams groan. All around jagged ripping shards are shredding through satin and flesh. He stands in the commotion, in the middle of the fury bloodied and cold. When his boots press down, they shatter the floor as if made of brittle bone. A fury stirs and heat coils from his toes to his eardrums. Blood pounds too hard to hear, too hard to think. He curls his lips and narrows his glare, a rumble building against his soft palate. His teeth flash and a horrible howl hurtles through the decimated halls.

* * *

There is a set of twins who call this place their home. Southern born souls who have a few more tricks than necessary up their sleeves. They flaunt their talents well.

There is a lot to say about the girl, but she hardly needs an introduction.

There is not much to say about the boy, but he's our protagonist, not she. He is quiet, calm, calculating. Cruelty flashing between his eyes and callous smile. It is not a smile borne with happiness. It resembles how Wolf shows his teeth to his challenger. It's an inviting smile, if the invitation is for a fight. No one has dared accept. To accept would mean to look him full in the face, gaze into pinpoint pupils set in an unearthly blue from where the madness leaks.

He always stands behind the girl, and not once has there been a reason to bring him under the spotlight. They intend to keep it that way.

He recalls a fight in which his sister had lulled a demon into the security of thinking he had won. Wiping the blood from her mouth, she had thrown her head back and roared. _I'm just the distraction!_

 _Monster, monster,_ they'd cry if they could.

But he's gone and ripped all their vocal cords out.

* * *

Barreling. He was barreling down the well-forgotten trail, branches and vines catching him in the face, across the middle, on the arms. Burrs stuck everywhere from his socks to his hair, but he gave little a sparing thought. That's not important right now. Nothing else is important right now.

Bitch was a loaded word, and he kept running his tongue over the trigger. God. Fuck. _Bitch, bitch, bitch_. At this point in his life he should have known, should have assumed, should have came to the conclusion when he saw the bow. The handwriting. He was such an idiot.

He lost his attention for a second and found himself colliding with a boulder. White, the landmark he'd said. White, damn near impossible to miss in the green woods.

"Do you have it?"

The wind knocked out of him, Dipper coughed violently before releasing a growl of pain, limbs splayed on the dirt floor. "Bless your little heart for helpin' me to my feet."

Gideon rolled his eyes. "Fuck off, Gleeful. I'm not doing this because I like you."

"I wouldn't have asked if necessity had not required." He pulled himself up gracelessly, raking his hand through knotted, breeze-blown hair. "Of course I damn well have it, what point would there be otherwise?"

"Dunno. Humiliating me."

"After all she's done, after everything, do you think that's my goal. Do you, in earnest truth, believe that to be my sole motive?"

He sighed, crossing his arms across his barrel of a chest. Dipper still couldn't figure out how his narrow hips supported all that _muscle_. He disagreed with Mabel; Gideon was a _moose_. "Since you look in bad shape, I suppose not. Disregard the past three months and sure, I'd say you're out to cut my throat. But not today."

"Not again. Not after you sticking your neck out like this for me."

"Is that a sincere statement?"

It was Dipper's turn to sigh. "If you want a chanted promise, I can do that too."

"No, I believe you."

"Anyway, she's your friend."

"She's more than that to the both of us, and you know it. She's practically family to me."

"Family." The word had an iron taste. Three months ago, it would have been more wine than blood. But three months ago he had yet to royally piss off his sister.

All because of a _girl_.

* * *

 **A/N:** Writing things that are jumbled in order works better when you've got the next chapter on hand. Unfortunately, I do not have the next chapter on hand.


	3. The Boulder Starts to Roll

Three Months Prior

* * *

"Giddy Up's got a new friend."

The sweet tea was dry on his tongue, leaving his mouth tasting unpleasantly like the backwash of night-old box wine. Tannins. Grape skin. Like licking furry tree bark.

Awful.

He couldn't be bothered to lift his gaze from the paper. "And?"

"Dunno, thought you'd find it interesting. New person, new games."

"You're confusing me for you. I'd prefer to keep my nose out of it." He flipped the newspaper further open. It wasn't the local; he found The Wall Street Journal served his purposes better than common gossip columns and dull reports of pigs and hypothetical lake monsters (the hypothetical part was incorrect). "Do you have anything else interesting to add, or have you come to annoy me?"

"What happened to you?" Mabel draped herself across the arm of his chair, leaning against the high back of the French Baroque-styled upholstery. "You used to be so fun, M–"

"Stop, _stop_ , that's not my name." He was on his feet, agitated.

"You'll wear that birthmark proudly, but you'll reject your own name?"

"You've got a motive, spit it out. I'm not one of your conquests so quit toying with me."

Mabel pouted–an all around false display–and crossed her arms over her loose shirt. "You're not still mad about Friday night, are you? I apologized."

Friday she'd nearly pushed him too far during a performance. He was the more sensitive of the pair in regards to the noise of outside minds. Other people's thoughts were drowning, and she'd directed a slew of them at him. On purpose, he argued. By accident, she whined.

"Stop deflecting." He urged his mason jar of tea into the air, ice cubes clinking as he stalked from the room. "If you want to tell me," he called over his shoulder, "you can tell me outright or you can keep mum."

She posed a good question, he reasoned reluctantly as the door to his bedroom glided shut. What _had_ happened to them? Birds of a feather pecking at each other. He hoped it was just a phase. Mabel had many phases, it wouldn't come as a surprise.

It didn't come as a surprise that she returned with a peace offering. Hours after he'd retreated she slipped into his room brandishing a candle, pajama shirt tucked into short bottoms.

"I'm sorry for offending you earlier."

"You didn't offend me, you annoyed and and treated me like one of your play-things."

She looked down. "You know I'm not the best at showing excitement."

"Yeah, I'm lucky you didn't stab me out of glee." He rolled his eyes and focused back on the tome in his hands.

"I'm serious. She's really pretty so I got all excited, you know?"

His brow furled. "She?"

"Gideon's friend. Do you even remember what this argument was about?"

"Yes, but she? You never mentioned anything about a girl."

"I never said anything about a boy either."

Dipper closed the ritual book, laying it flat in his lap. "Does this mean you're finally done chasing him?"

"After he bulked up? Abso _lutely_ not. You know I like my men strong."

"Mentally strong," he muttered. "Well, Gossip Queen, what else do you know? You didn't come make amends to tell me some new girl is pretty."

"What, not on the hunt anymore?"

He made a slight growl, crossing his arms. "That's none of your business."

"You brought a random girl home last weekend." She shrugged, face innocent. "I thought maybe you'd want some of my help."

"This is about making Gideon jealous."

"This is entirely about making Gideon jealous."

Dipper pursed his lips in thought. On one hand, he didn't really feel like assisting Mabel's ridiculous six-year-old lust, on the other, she'd pester him until he did something, no matter what it was. "Do I _have_ to sleep with her?"

"You don't _have_ to do anything."

"Good. I'm not going that far again for you. Are you still seeing the younger Corduroy boy?"

"In the loosest of senses. Why?"

"The lot of them likes to party. It would be easier to convince them to host something with your persuasion."

"That's my brother." She rose, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll make up this favor for you, I promise."

"Put it in the IOU jar. If this works, I'm charging you double."

"Deal."

"One question, Mabel. What's her name?"

* * *

"Pacifica!"

Gideon wrapped her into a tight, soul-crushing hug, jerking her quickly off her feet and around in a circle.

"God, did you get _stronger_?" she managed to choke out before being set down.

"Hope so, but also hope not. 'Fraid I'm going to break your ribs one of these days."

"So am I." She rubbed at her throbbing arms, well aware of the bruises beginning to form. Taking her attention away from the pain, she looked around. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

"The Shack isn't that far from town." He smiled, taking her bags easily in one hand. "C'mon, I'll give you the grand tour."

She followed him into the rickety looking building covered in murals of eyes. The woods up here were gorgeous, and she left every want for the beach on the mat inside the door. Crisp air, loud crickets, and hooting owls. She could get used to it up here. She could get used to the darkness of the isolated night and the coziness of Gideon's summer home.

Candles were lit all through the house, sitting on the walls, covering the tables, and wedged in tiny holes leading up the stairs. The smell of pork roast and cherry pie lingered from the earlier dinner she'd no doubt missed on her drive up. Her mouth was beginning to water.

"We've leftovers from earlier in the basement fridge if you've yet to eat. I'll get you to your room first, though, so you can change or whatever you fancy girls do."

"Whatever us fancy girls do," she repeated with a laugh. "Gid, I'm far from fancy. Poppa and Mom, maybe, but not me."

"Just teasin'," he said with a grin. "Like I haven't known you since kindergarden."

"Pre-K. I stole your firetruck."

"What a great way to start a friendship."

He unlocked a green door to a long, infrequently used guest room. The carpet was gold and moss and it smelled faintly of mothballs, but the bed was freshly made and it felt homey, just like everything else about the Pines family.

"Listen, Paz, I'm really glad you've come to stay with me this summer."

She smiled warmly, looking around her room for the next few months. "Me too, dude."

* * *

AN: I've decided this is going to be far more graphic than originally planned, mostly in a sexual manner. When that happens, I'll indicate ahead of time and give a synopsis at the end of the chapter so it can be skipped if so desired, since not everyone is into that sort of story.


	4. Devil in the Mist

The chill outside went bone deep, the sort of cold, foggy gloom that followed the hazy-morning storm. A cold front had nestled high in the pines, casting dreary gray miasma over the crumbling mountain tops.

She had to hug her sweater closer, down vest not enough to push the chilling slivers of air from her body. Each step deeper into the woods made clammy her hands, her neck, her cheeks. Sweat beaded cold on her brow and soaked her wool socks. Preventing blisters wasn't worth the misery of wet feet.

Another slippery rock overcome, another thought cast as to _why_ they were exploring this early in the morning, on this cold a day. It couldn't be much past five-the sun had yet to rise. And it couldn't be much warmer than 40, not up here in the dense evergreen woods. Everything about this place was unpleasant and depressing.

"When I said I wanted to go for a walk," she started, plunging a walking stick deep into mud to support her next leap, "I didn't mean _hike_ , and I didn't mean _early morning_."

"It's too hot otherwise." Her response came from far above, echoing down from an outcrop yards ahead. "And muggy. Before seven is the best time."

"But it's insufferably muggy _anyway_." Pacifica heaved herself up another natural stair and jerked her stick free. The moss was thick and slimy, like algae gripping to swamp rocks. "And it's damn _steep_. C'mon, Gid, this isn't your brightest idea."

"You're just out of shape."

"Look, few people are fit to climb at a ninety-degree angle. You are one, I am not." She tried to hide the need to lean against the walking stick, to hide her weakness and inferiority. She had always been the fastest of the two, the strongest, the most agile. Now she paled to his physical ability, unable to keep up. She didn't want to admit to him that she was in the dust. She didn't want to say she was afraid of falling behind.

Gideon's laugh reached her ears and she forced herself higher. "This isn't fair."

"We're getting close, then you can stop your grumbling."

Paz gave a melodramatic sigh.

It was difficult to see the further upward she climbed. Fog spun like thick cotton across her vision, clouding and twisting shapes and shadows. Tree branches became hands, trunks the legs of colossal giants smoking churchwardens high above the clouds. She hoped the mirages would recede come the dawn.

"If we had just waited another half hour before we set out, it wouldn't be this miserable."

Her words bounced around, not quipped at. The mist had lifted a little, enough to let her know she was alone.

She'd taken the road less traveled.

Pacifica roared, loudly, in frustration. She was hopelessly lost in this unfamiliar, unknown hellhole above the ground. How far off could he be? How, _how_ had she managed to lose him? In that short of a time? In what she hoped was a short distance?

Shouldn't he have heard her scream? Or called back?

The slow, dull ache of panic began to creep into her chest. A throbbing, confused burning, as though adrenaline had wrapped around her heart and couldn't find its way to her limbs. She had to sit down, do something to occupy her nervous fingers, to stop the stone sinking in her stomach, weighing her down.

" _GIDEON!"_ Her cry was shrill, and it ricocheted off the bark and wet stones.

"I'm terribly sorry, miss, but that's not my name." It was spoken in a Carolina drawl.

A young man stood in front of her, a place that hadn't been occupied moments ago, a space in which he couldn't logically be. Her brain ignored it.

"Where did you-"

"Higher on the trail; bit harder to see up there from down here." He wore a tastefully patterned pullover (did those _exist_? she would ask herself later) over a button down, the sleeve rolled up his pale arms. Something about how he smelled made her feel sleepy.

"Oh. I didn't see you."

"I barely saw you, too. Glad I didn't knock you over." His smile was charming but unsettling. "You look a little shaken."

Her instincts didn't want to trust him, but her mouth had other plans. "I was out with a friend, but we got separated. I'm not familiar with the area."

"What luck, I'm on my way down. Do you know where you started?"

She shook her head, trying not to let her rebellious tongue say anything more to the stranger.

"I can get you back to the ground, then, but you'll have to find your friend on your own."

"I don't think I could miss his car. It's huge and painfully orange."

The stranger chuckled. "Old '76 Silverado?"

"Could be."

"You can see that thing for miles, ever the eyesore." He smiled again, leaving her uncomfortable and intrigued. "Don't worry, I'll get you back."

She nodded, following the stranger in dark brown hiking boots.

* * *

Separating them had been easy but she wasn't quick to trust. She correctly picked out there was something off about him, though this charm was not the easiest to ward off. Strong-willed, certainly, to the point of annoyance.

"How long have you been lost?" He wanted to watch her reaction to see if she were an open book. Gideon wore his emotions on his sleeve, as did Mabel. Would the friend be different, or one in the same?

"No more than ten minutes. I expect he's already noticed my disappearance."

Stonefaced. Huh.

Gideon had noticed, all right, but Dipper was forcing a section of the trail to loop endlessly until Pacifica was out of the woods. Shouldn't be long now. "I bet he'll be along soon."

"Yeah, hopefully. Maybe he won't even notice I'm gone. I'm a way slower hiker."

"Well, it is swampy after a rain, I don't blame you for going slow."

He held his hand out for her to help cross a drop. She opted to plunge her stick into the ground below and leap, skidding slightly on the damp rocks. _Stubborn_.

"What were you doing out here by yourself?"

"I like to get away from my family sometimes. Find solitude out in the woods, places they won't follow."

"You get away from your parents at five in the morning?"

"Parents? No. My sister and granduncle."

Her lips drew drew back into a quick grimace. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's fine. Been a fair number of years now."

She stayed silent, glancing off as they continued down. It gave him a moment to look her over, to determine how much truth Mabel gave for the girl's description. She seemed to flip between bold and mousy with the wrong set of words. Not as goofy as he'd been told, not as oddly dressed. Blonde, though, very blonde. Mabel and he had been towheaded children, but her hair must have been paper-thin and birch white when she was little.

The meekness crept back. "What's so bad about them?"

"Pardon?"

"Your family, what makes you want to hide?"

"My granduncle can be controlling, and my sister..." He wavered. Toes on the tightrope, should he make the jump? "We used to get along, but lately we've been drifting apart." _She's turning into someone I don't want to become_.

"That I can understand. My friends have already started falling away and we haven't left for college yet."

"Friends come and go, but family is supposed to be the rock to build the church. No cornerstone and the foundation starts to crumble."

"I never thought of it like that."

"Probably a bit of something I grew up with. Life's different all around this great big country, isn't it?"

Her smile was small. "I suppose it is. Here isn't anything like home."

"Here isn't like anything else."

They turned around a wide redwood, coming into sight of the parking lot. The sun had breached the ground there, only filtering slowly through the forest. Her face glowed with the dawn.

"My god, that car is hideous."

Dipper's lips twitched as he fell behind her. "You can make it from here?"

"Yeah, I'm all right. Thank you for being such a gentleman and helping out."

"It was my pleasure," he said with a mock bow.

Her hair bobbed down the rest of the path. Once her foot hit the concrete, the charm keeping Gideon at bay broke.

"Don't be quick to think all us southern folk are gentlemen," he muttered under his breath before disappearing into the fog.


End file.
